Eng. Manuel Resende de Oliveira. Engineering - Angolanity
March 07, 2023
It was with regret and a feeling of collective loss that we learned of the death of Eng. Manuel Resende de Oliveira, one of the founders of PROGEST and a reference in Angolan engineering, for his technical excellence, professional ethics and above all for his Angolan identity.
A friend, professional colleague, competitor and inspiration for the causes he defended departs.
Thanks for everything Eng. Resende.
SOAPRO.
Message from Eng. Domingos Guimarães, one of the founders of SOAPRO and a contemporary of Eng. Manuel Resende de Oliveira.
Although I didn't know him personally, I was very touched when Zé Luis Guerra Marques invited me in April 1989, still at LEA, to join the technical staff of Progest, which I believe was the joint idea of Valério and Resende de Oliveira.
While leading the Empresa de Obras Públicas e Pontes, in the years that preceded the Independence of Angola, and having witnessed the exodus of immense cadres that left Angola moments before our 11th of November, he remained giving the country all his commitment as an excellent technician that was.
Works were under way in Bairro Golfe, with immense problems as there were troubled times and political instability, since he had been sworn in by the President of the Republic Dr. Agostinho Neto, as Minister of Public Works shortly after the granting of Angolan Nationality. He was a citizen born in Portugal, who fully assumed positions of upstanding citizen and linked to the cause of the Angolan People. He mobilized the cadres linked to construction in the early days of Independence, creating a mobilizing spirit that motivated everyone so that all the difficulties of those difficult times were overcome.
Admittedly, in the eighties and six, when Angola went through immense financial difficulties in assuming commitments with expatriates, he played an important role in the hope that better times would come, and thus he kept a whole team at the head of the Ministry of Construction in what was the reconversion work of the musseques in the peripheral zone of the city of Luanda, providing infrastructure and building roads, sanitation, schools, kindergartens...
Throughout the country, he mobilized the few cadres that remained in the provinces, appointing them representatives of the directives issued by the single party that governed Angola. He was a zealous follower of these directives, not knowing of any personal lucrative interests. He was the first Portuguese, after Independence, to be given Angolan nationality by the then Founder of the Nation.
Still in the final years of the eighties, he created the Empresa de Projectos with his brothers, Valério and José Guerra Marques, already out of any political activity, which was dedicated to the elaboration of projects and monitoring of works.
He stood out for his technical and professional commitment, devoid of material and financial interests, which led a life without luxuries and without ostentation. Always in a constructive attitude and committed to the reconstruction of the country.
His enlightened and therefore critical spirit in relation to many controversial and non-technical decisions was an inspiration for many of us, especially for those who share the greatest purpose that an engineer can have, the improvement of the quality of life for all of us”.
R.I.P.
Domingos Guimaraes
SOAPRO
A friend, professional colleague, competitor and inspiration for the causes he defended departs.
Thanks for everything Eng. Resende.
SOAPRO.
Message from Eng. Domingos Guimarães, one of the founders of SOAPRO and a contemporary of Eng. Manuel Resende de Oliveira.
Although I didn't know him personally, I was very touched when Zé Luis Guerra Marques invited me in April 1989, still at LEA, to join the technical staff of Progest, which I believe was the joint idea of Valério and Resende de Oliveira.
While leading the Empresa de Obras Públicas e Pontes, in the years that preceded the Independence of Angola, and having witnessed the exodus of immense cadres that left Angola moments before our 11th of November, he remained giving the country all his commitment as an excellent technician that was.
Works were under way in Bairro Golfe, with immense problems as there were troubled times and political instability, since he had been sworn in by the President of the Republic Dr. Agostinho Neto, as Minister of Public Works shortly after the granting of Angolan Nationality. He was a citizen born in Portugal, who fully assumed positions of upstanding citizen and linked to the cause of the Angolan People. He mobilized the cadres linked to construction in the early days of Independence, creating a mobilizing spirit that motivated everyone so that all the difficulties of those difficult times were overcome.
Admittedly, in the eighties and six, when Angola went through immense financial difficulties in assuming commitments with expatriates, he played an important role in the hope that better times would come, and thus he kept a whole team at the head of the Ministry of Construction in what was the reconversion work of the musseques in the peripheral zone of the city of Luanda, providing infrastructure and building roads, sanitation, schools, kindergartens...
Throughout the country, he mobilized the few cadres that remained in the provinces, appointing them representatives of the directives issued by the single party that governed Angola. He was a zealous follower of these directives, not knowing of any personal lucrative interests. He was the first Portuguese, after Independence, to be given Angolan nationality by the then Founder of the Nation.
Still in the final years of the eighties, he created the Empresa de Projectos with his brothers, Valério and José Guerra Marques, already out of any political activity, which was dedicated to the elaboration of projects and monitoring of works.
He stood out for his technical and professional commitment, devoid of material and financial interests, which led a life without luxuries and without ostentation. Always in a constructive attitude and committed to the reconstruction of the country.
His enlightened and therefore critical spirit in relation to many controversial and non-technical decisions was an inspiration for many of us, especially for those who share the greatest purpose that an engineer can have, the improvement of the quality of life for all of us”.
R.I.P.
Domingos Guimaraes
SOAPRO
